forth between Laylen and me, looking a little lost. “Okay….Let's go inside, then.”
So apparently Alex had woken up Adessa when he’d seen Laylen and me standing outside in the dark. He had to wake her up or he wouldn’t have been able to walk out the front door without getting blasted by Adessa’s charms.
I still had my hand on my neck, trying to keep my bite mark hidden, as we stepped into the living room. But as the light hit me, I realized that there was blood all over Laylen’s black thermal shirt that I still had on, and there was no way to cover it up.
“What the hell is all over your shirt?” Alex asked as soon as he caught sight of me in the light. He came up and took a closer look at the thermal shirt I had on. “Is that blood?” Before I could answer, he picked up the hem of the shirt. “And why do you have Laylen’s shirt on?”
I yanked the hem of the shirt out of his grasp. “I have his shirt on because it was cold outside.”
He gave me a disbelieving look. “It’s like seventy degrees out there, Gemma.”
“Well, I get cold easily,” I said as casually as I could, which strangely enough sounded casual.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “So where’d the blood come from?”
“It came from—” Before I could finish coming up with a lie, he reached over and lifted my hand away from my neck.
He let out a sequence of too-inappropriate-to-repeat-words and then lunged for Laylen. Laylen, taken off-guard, stumbled back as Alex slammed into him, and both of them went crashing into the wall, causing the wall to crack.
Laylen quickly regained his footing, and he shoved Alex hard. But Alex barely budged.
“You bit her,” Alex said, coming at Laylen again. “Are you freaking crazy?”
“That’s not what happen—” I said, but was cut off as Laylen rammed into Alex, making them both fly backward and onto the apothecary table, which instantly buckled beneath their weight. It didn’t even faze either one of them as they rolled around on the tiled floor, crashing into the shelves and sofas, while they threw punches at each other.
I’d just decided that I might need to go get some help—because let’s face it I am not strong enough to stop a fight between a Keeper and a vampire—when Aislin and Adessa appeared in the doorway. Adessa was wearing a long navy blue robe decorated with bright pink flowers, and Aislin was dressed in a plaid pajama set.
“What in the world is going on?” Aislin screeched, her bright green eyes wide.
Laylen and Alex didn’t even so much as acknowledge she was there, still throwing swings at one another.
“Gemma, what happened?” Ailsin asked, looking horrified.
“Um…we were—”
“Subsisto.” Adessa said, her hand out in front of her.
Laylen and Alex flew away from each other; Alex landing by Aislin’s feet and Laylen smacking onto the floor not too far from me.
“What the heck are you two doing?” Ailsin asked Alex as she tried to help him to his feet.
Alex shook her hand off, breathing heavily as he got to his feet. His bottom lip was spilt and he had a cut above his right eyebrow. “He bit her,” he said, storming toward Laylen again.
Aislin grabbed Alex by the back of his shirt and, with a lot of effort on her part, held him back. “Who bit…What?”
Irritation shined in Alex’s bright green eyes. “Laylen,” he said, with an attitude. “Bit Gemma.”
Aislin’s eyes widen even more as she took in the sight of my blood-stained shirt and the two holes in my neck. “Oh my God.”
“Laylen didn’t bite me,” I told her. “Another vampire did.” I looked down at Laylen, who had a small bruise on his cheek, and waited for him to jump in and help me explain.
But all he did was stand to his feet, dust himself off, and pop his neck. Then he strolled toward the doorway, doing that thing that guys do when they take a quick step towards the other one to “psych” them out.
“Laylen,” Aislin said, shocked. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Nothing’s the matter with me,” he replied, kind of being a jerk.
Aislin looked hurt as she let go of Alex’s shirt.
Laylen left the room, and I figured I’d explain what we’d been up to while he cooled off. Of course, I had absolutely no idea how I was going to go about doing this.
Aislin chased after Laylen, and Adessa took one look at Alex